A conventional inkjet recording device known in the art records images on a recording medium by conveying the recording medium and simultaneously ejecting ink droplets onto the recording medium while the recording medium is conveyed. One such inkjet recording device is also provided with a purging mechanism that draws in ink from nozzles formed in the recording head through suction in order to remove foreign materials and the like in the nozzles together with the ink. The purging mechanism is sometimes provided with a waste liquid chamber for collecting waste ink drawn out of the nozzles.
One example of this type of inkjet recording device is a printer described in Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. 2009-262446 that includes a head serving as the recording head, a maintenance unit serving as the purging mechanism, and a waste-ink tank serving as the waste liquid chamber. In the printer disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. 2009-262446, the waste-ink tank is disposed below and forward of the head.
The waste-ink tank must have a sufficient capacity for storing waste ink. Hence, the waste-ink tank of the printer disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. 2009-262446 is configured to be larger than the head and the like. To make the waste-ink tank larger, the front-to-rear and left-to-right dimensions of the waste-ink tank are increased. However, increasing the size of the waste-ink tank inevitably increases the installation area of the printer.